Thursday, May 5, 2011

Processing the Hosmer promotion

After news of Eric Hosmer's call up was announced the immediate reaction was that the Royals are going all in, that they are going after the 2011 AL Central crown. I can understand why people feel that way but this just seems to me like an overreaction to Kila Ka'aihue's slow start. I get the enthusiasm surrounding the move, as he's the first real prospect to arrive, well maybe second, depending on how you feel about Aaron Crow, I don't get the timing. Although to be fair, Hosmer did hit .439/.525/.582 for Omaha, so he more than excelled against AAA pitching. Strangely though, he had only 8 extra base hits, which is just 2 more than our forsaken Hawaiian.

Kila's season has been disappointing and he has looked lost, I won't deny that, but if they are truly going for it then a better first move would've been to address a more pressing concern, the rotation. Whether that means Vin Mazzaro, Mike Montgomery, or Danny Duffy I don't know but something needs to be done, because the rotation as currently comprised is not very good.

I mean, a contending team is not going to send out a rotation consisting of Hochevar, Francis, Davies, Chen, and O'Sullivan. They're just not, not if they want to contend for very long anyway.

So no, I don't believe this move was made with contention in mind.

I have to admit, I rather liked the idea of keeping Hosmer in Omaha until late April of next year, but after his great spring training I fully expected he would be promoted this year. I thought that would occur in the season's second half though, which means I expected Kila to get more than 96 plate appearances. Crazy, I know. In his last 8 games he hit .276/.348/.448, so he actually was coming out of his funk, although apparently neither Yost or Moore noticed.

I can really envision only one scenario where Kila resurfaces in Kansas City, so he might as well just go ahead and get fitted for his T-Bones uniform now. You know, just to get it out of the way. It only took 326 PAs for the Royals to deem him a 4A player, which is ridiculous, not to mention 123 less than Shane Costa of all people received. Whatever. So having been sacrificed at the altar of the process,the Kila Ka'aihue era has come to a premature and confusing end. Let the people rejoice.....

Moving on.

You know who didn't get demoted today? Chris Getz. The very same Chris Getz whose 74 OPS+ this season is both terrible and a career high. The very same Chris Getz whose incredibly shrinking numbers have also gone unnoticed by Yost and Moore. Hosmer's promotion should mean that Getz becomes Mitch Maier 2.0 and rarely sees any playing time. In a perfect world Aviles and Betemit would man second base and third base everyday. But this is not a perfect world, and with Ned being Ned, that probably won't happen. Getz will play far too much and hit far too little. It's just so predictable.

"What's Getz got to do with it?" - isn't that a Tina Turner song? Never mind.

In any case, my belief is that Hosmer could be as ready, but there just wasn't much sense in not waiting another 100 pa's to make certain, while giving Kila those same 100 pa's to make certain on him...and to see if he could get hot and increase his trade value.

Now with two 1B/DH 4-A players in Omaha not having proven anything at the major league level, what would Dayton expect to get for them in a trade?

Still though, the Royals lineup does become more interesting now...I just hope Hosmer doesn't get off to the same start Brandon Belt did with the Giants.